A Lost Love
by Divergent Wizarding Glader
Summary: Sophie has to watch the boy she loves (Newt) survive in the Glade. *I add a new chapter every other day (sometimes it can take longer)
1. Chapter 1

The mazes were finally ready. WICKED had installed the final touches yesterday, and were now wiping the memories of the first people going in. Thirty kids were to be sent to each maze, thirty boys, thirty girls, sixty kids thrown into complete hell.

Sophie stood by Newt as he waited anxiously to have his memory wiped.

"Are you scared?" she asked him, although she knew the answer.

"Does it matter?" Newt responded. In front of them, Minho stood with his eyes on the ground, fingers tapping his sides lightly.

"You'll be fine," she assured Newt. "You've trained as much as you possibly can-"

"It's not enough. Nothing can prepare anyone for this, Sophie. Yeah, I'm physically ready. And if they were to throw me in there right now, I'd be fine. But when they wipe my memories away, take away everything that I am, well, that's basically starting me off from level zero."

"At least you'll be with Minho and Alby."

"Yeah, but I won't have a clue who they are. I could turn them into my enemy, for all I know!"

Newt's voice was rising.

"Shh, WICKED wants quiet for the operations."

"So now you're with them?" Newt asked.

"What?"

"Now you want what they want?"

"Newt, I hate them. I hate what they're doing, but they're doing it for a cure. We'll be back together soon, maybe we can even get our memories back."

"They're not taking your memories, Sophie. You'll still be you. And all I'll know is my name and whatever is in store for us in the maze."

"They're going to take my memories, they said they would eventually."

Newt didn't respond. Sophie looked at her shoes. WICKED's shoes. Standing on WICKED's floor. In WICKED's room, of WICKED's building. Of WICKED's world. Everything was WICKED's, and Sophie suddenly wished that there was no WICKED. That it could just be a normal world, Cranks or no Cranks.

"I'm going to forget you, Sophie," Newt said quietly, so quietly she almost missed it.

"I'll watch you. Every day. And if they do anything to you, I'll stop them. And if I can't stop them, I'll kill them. And if I can't kill them," Sophie paused here for a second, thinking of what to say next. "I'll run into the maze and save you myself."

"Please don't do that," Newt said. He forced a laugh.

"I will if I have to."

Minho, Newt, and a boy named George were the only ones left in the line. Minho stepped into the room when the door opened, leaving Newt to go next.

"Five minutes until I'm not me," he said.

"You'll still be you. You'll always be you. And I'll always love you."

Newt pulled Sophie into a tight embrace, wrapping his arms around her back and holding her tightly. Sophie ran her fingers through his hair, feeling each strand slip through her hands.

"I will always love you," she repeated.

Drops of water fell onto her back. No, not water. She realized Newt was crying. She pulled away from the hug and looked Newt in the eye. Her hand moved to his face to wipe away tears.

"I'm going to forget you. They're taking you away," he said softly.

"We'll be back together, I promise."

"You can't promise that."

"I can try," Sophie replied.

There was a moment of silence and Sophie heard the buzz of electrical equipment, probably coming from the operation on Minho.

"I love you," Newt said.

The door to the operation room opened.

"I've got to go, now."

"Bye, Newt. I promise we'll be together again. I promise."

"I know you'll find a way. I love you."

And with that, he closed the door behind him, leaving Sophie and George alone in the hallway.

-_-

"I love you, too, Newt," she whispered to nobody.

"I'm sorry," she heard George whisper. "You guys were cute together."

"We'll be back together someday, George. We all will. I should probably go, Dr Paige wants me in the camera room when the box goes up. I told her I just wanted to see Newt off."

"You should probably go, then," he said. Sophie nodded and started walking away. When she reached the end of the hallway, she turned back.

"George?" she said. He turned, a look of confusion planted on his face.

"Yeah?"

"You'll be okay."

-_-

Dr Paige was sitting behind a desk, pulling up different camera views of the Glade that Newt was going to be sent to.

"Dr Paige?" Sophie asked. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Dr Paige answered, turning around and standing up, leaving the chair for Sophie to sit on.

"Will I ever see Newt again?"

Dr Paige walked towards the door and opened it. She stepped outside and turned back to face Sophie. "Watch the cameras for me. I think you'll want to do that for a while."

She closed the door as she left.

Sophie sat down behind the cameras.

"What a way to end the conversation. She could have just said no. Or I don't know."

Suddenly Sophie wondered if there was a way to communicate with Newt inside the maze. If she could send him Morse Code messages or something. But Newt wouldn't know Morse Code. And, come to think of it, she didn't either. Sophie had been in the camera room quite a few times before, and knew she could use the phone to call other departments if something looked odd. She picked it up and called the first number on the list - the psychs.

A voice she recognized as Chancellor Anderson's picked up.

"Hello? Paige?"

"No, it's Sophie."

"Sophie? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I was just wondering when the box was going to be up. When I'd have something to watch here, you know?"

"Very funny, Sophie. I think the box will be up in about three minutes, they just finished George's operation and the girls were already done."

"Okay, thank you."

The Chancellor hung up the phone.

"Sophie pulled up the camera in the girls' maze. It was almost identical to the boys', with the exception of a few dislocated trees. She pulled up the feed from a camera located inside the boys' maze. The walls were large, twenty feet high. Ivy tangled around most of the walls, but in some places she could see the small engraving in each of the stone sectors.

**World In Catastrophe;**

**Killzone Experiment Department**

WICKED. Dr Paige had never explained why subjects needed to be sent into a maze to help WICKED find a cure for the Flare pandemic, but she sided with the good guys, and they appeared to be them at the moment.

The door creaked open and a boy stepped in.

"Hey, Thomas," Sophie said.

"Hi, Sophie. Are they in the box yet?"

"They should be getting to the Glade any second now."

"Are you watching the girls?"

"No." She didn't provide an explanation as to why, she was pretty sure Thomas already knew.

A few minutes later, the box had arrived and the Gladers were all wandering around. Sophie looked over at Thomas's screen to see who he was watching. He was watching Minho talk to Alby.

"What are they talking about?" Sophie asked.

"Where the hell they are," Thomas answered. "If anybody knows anybody, all the stuff you'd expect. How's Newt?"

"Keeping to himself, looks like. Sitting by the entrance to a maze. God, I hope he doesn't go in. Ever."

"He's a pretty fast runner and quick wit, he'll probably get sent in there to explore sometime."

"I hope you're wrong."

"So do I."

Newt kept himself separate from everybody for the rest of the day.


	2. Chapter 2

Sophie got up early the next day. It was still dark outside when she took her seat in the camera room. Thomas was already there, too.

"Are you ever going to leave?" she asked him.

"Only if they make me."

She nodded and watched as the Gladers slept.

"Newt was crying last night," Thomas said. "Kept it quiet, too."

"Newt was crying? Are you sure it wasn't Alby?"

"No, I'm sure. I pulled the Beetle Blade to above his bed and his face was all wet."

"Beetle Blade?" she asked.

"It's what they call the cameras. They look like beetles when they crawl around."

"Where's the blade come from?"

"You'll have to ask Paige, I don't know."

Sophie moved the camera - Beetle Blade - closer to the boys' beds. She noticed that they were sleeping in hammocks. Newt was sitting on the ground, his back against a wooden pole holding up a large tarp. There were others who were up, some pulling sticks off of trees, others inspecting the plants. One of them was looking down the hole that the box came up in.

Sophie maneuvered the Blade to the woods, where three boys had taken the liberty of pulling sticks, twigs, even large branches, off of the trees and carrying them back to the sleeping area.

Another boy was sitting on the grass, inspecting the supplies that had been sent up in the box with the boys.

Alby stood up and brushed off his hands. Sophie turned on the audio. It looked as if he were going to speak.

"Watch Alby," Thomas said, as if reading her mind.

"I already am."

"Hey! Everybody!" Alby called. Everybody's heads snapped towards him. "Okay, so obviously nobody knows where we are, and all me and Minho here can remember are our names. Can anybody remember anything else? Anything that may be important?" Nobody answered. "That's great, isn't it?"

"Nobody knows where the bloody hell we are?" Newt called.

"Yeah, are you deaf? Or just slow, kid?" a boy called out. Sophie recognized him as Nick. "Kid! Answer me! Huh?"

"Hey, no fighting! Look, we're all stranded here and have no clue who the hell we are, but we are all in it together, apparently!"

"Yeah, this Shank is right," the boy that had been inspecting food answered.

"Shank?" Newt asked, standing up.

"I don't know, it just rolled out."

"It works. Looks like for now we're all Shanks."

"And what if we don't want to call ourselves Shanks?" someone called.

"What if we change the conversation?" Minho called over the murmurs.

This shut everybody up.

"Anybody know anything other than your name and the basics of the English language?" Minho called.

"The Glade." Someone retorted. "This place is called the Glade."

"How on bloody Earth do you know that?" Newt asked.

"I don't know, Shank, I just remember it. Well, not really remember, but it's there."

"Alright, for now, we're in the Glade," Nick said.

The Gladers spent the next two hours coming up with words like Shank, and Shuck (which was apparently a stand in for a word Sophie heard floating around the corridors, only when there were no doctors around). Klunk stood for trash, Slinthead was a stand in for stupid, and the phrase slim it had somehow come to mean calm down.

They had also come up with more important things, like jobs for everyone. The boy named Nick had taken command, Alby claiming to be second-in-command. Sloppers did the dirty work, Bricknicks and Builders were to build and repair structures, Slicers were to take care of the animals that were present before the boys, raising them for food. Track-hoes and gardeners worked in the fields, track-hoes doing all the labor while gardeners planted and pulled crops. One of the Gladers - Siggy - had been assigned to cook and had earned the nickname Frypan in the time. Med-jacks were doctors, and Runners were to go into the Maze every day and return with enough knowledge to map it when they returned at night. The Gladers had discovered that the entrances closed at night and all agreed that it would be best for the Runners to return by then if they could help it. The position of Runners had been given to Minho, Newt, Hank, George, Dan, and Nick.

Everyone agreed they were hungry, so they all had a lunch out of the canned foods that were sent with them. It was agreed that nobody would start work until tomorrow, so Frypan didn't cook them anything.

As nighttime approached, Sophie realized that she hadn't eaten all day and a pang of hunger hit her as if on cue.

"I'm going to go grab dinner," she told Thomas on her way out. "Do you want anything?"

"No, no, I'm fine, thanks," he said.

"Okay, then," Sophie said, closing the door.

The cafeteria was crowded with workers and a few kids who were yet to be subjects, including Sonya, Newt's sister. Sophie picked out a small meal, grabbed an extra bottle of water for Thomas, and headed back to the camera room.

Thomas was thankful for the water and chugged it quickly as Sophie hastefully ate her meal.

Newt was sitting by Minho, having a quiet conversation.

"You know what they're talking about?" Sophie asked Thomas, hoping she wouldn't have to switch beetle blades to know.

"Yeah," he didn't elaborate.

A beat passed, Sophie waiting for him to say more. When he didn't, she responded.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"They're talking about the food and how good it was. Didn't think that'd interest you too much."

"Well," Sophie said, not bothering to finish the sentence. She walked the Beetle Blade over to a small structure the boys had made out of wood. It was connected to the small awning that WICKED had constructed themselves, providing the Gladers with a start.

The wooden shack was well built, and the door was ajar. Sophie led the blade inside. It was dark, they hadn't bothered to construct any sort of window, but Sophie could make out Frypan and Alby talking.

"... water pipes and enough electricity to keep food cold, but other than that, there's no sign that anything was here before us, is here, or will turn up to help us." This was Frypan, Sophie realized. His voice hinted that he was worried, but he tried to cover it the best he could.

"Don't you think I've realized we're alone?" Alby snapped back.

"How do we know we can even trust another? We've only been here one day!"

"One day, and no shuck Glader has turned up a psychopath murderer. I don't think we have much of a choice; we have to trust each other."

"We need to keep track of the days we've been here, that reminds me," Frypan remarked.

"What, you can't keep track of one, Shank?" Alby asked. Sophie noticed that all the boys had seemed to pick up the new slang rather quickly, using it as if it had been theirs their whole life.

"Alby, please calm down. Alright? They sent a knife up in the box, we can carve tallies into the stone and keep a functional calender."

"So I'll get the Gladers to carve their names into the walls after you do that, okay?" Sophie was surprised by Alby's sudden calmness, as if a new mind had taken control of his body.

"Group B is just starting getting situated, looks like the boys are doing better," Sophie thought for a second that the voice came from Frypan or Alby, but then realized that Thomas had spoken the words.

"Have you checked their cameras?" Sophie asked. She turned off the audio for Group A, the Gladers.

"Yeah. They call themselves the Icers, I don't know why. They came up with a bunch of words, too, but my favorite's Stick. It's like the Gladers' Shank, but funnier."

"Do they have a leader?"

"Yeah, some girl named Ximena. She's pretty bossy. Glares at the Beetle Blades like they're an ant stealing her orange at a picnic."

Sophie spent the next few minutes watching no particular Glader, although her eyes seemed to shift her gaze to Newt more than she meant for them to.

Dr Paige creaked the door open and stepped inside, shifting both Thomas and Sophie's attention from their screens.

"I'm not leaving," Thomas said. "I don't care what you tell me, I'm not leaving right here."

"Calm down, I'm not here to ask you to leave. I'm here to ask you why you won't leave," Dr Paige replied.

"You just sent our Shuck friends into the Maze, where they could die, and you are asking why we won't stop watching them?" Thomas asked.

"Thomas, I-" Dr Paige started. "What did you say? Your shuck friends?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Thomas answered. "The Gladers say it a lot."

"Is that what your friends have called themselves?"

"You said you'd be watching them," Sophie said. "Keeping them safe. Shouldn't you know that if you've been keeping true to your word?"

"I've been in and out of watching them, there's been an awful Flare outbreak not too far from here, and it's in your best interest that I tend to that as much - if not more than - as I watch your friends in their perfectly safe, contained environment."

"Sorry," Sophie said.

"Besides, there are still plenty of subjects here who haven't been sent to the Maze yet, why don't you talk to them."

"I don't think it was a coincidence that you sent the ones we hang out with into the Mazes first," Thomas said, nodding towards Sophie. She hoped he didn't drag her into any trouble he would get in with Dr Paige.

"Thomas, I-" Dr Paige started, but Sophie cut her off.

"He's just mad, he doesn't mean what he says," the words came out harsher than she meant them to, but it didn't seem to phase Dr Paige.

"I'll just leave you two to your watching, then. I expect you sleep tonight, Thomas. It's vital for your good health." She walked out of the room and shut the door, Sophie noticed it was with quite angry force.

"Seriously, Thomas, watch what you say around here," Sophie said. "We're just subjects to them, we could easily be thrown into that Maze."

"Teresa said that's not going to happen. That we're too valuable to them."

"Teresa doesn't know jack," Sophie snapped. "WICKED isn't as good as she lets on, Thomas."

"What?"

"I'm just saying. She waltzes around this place like she owns it. I think she forgets that she's just a fifteen year old girl who's immune to the Flare, just as susceptible to the experiment as we are. If I were you, I'd make sure she gets her head out of the clouds and a little closer to the ground. For her level of authority around here, anyways."

"I don't know how to respond to that, so I'm just going to watch the Glade." Thomas and Sophie didn't speak the rest of the night. Sophie knew it wasn't out of anger at each other, but rather that Thomas was tired and hungry, and Sophie didn't want to trigger him.


	3. Chapter 3

124 tally marks now covered the wall the Gladers keep track of the date on. They marked the wall every day at noon. Sophie was surprised how similarly the two groups were doing in their progress. She, Thomas, and a new boy Sophie met named Aris spent all of their free time in the camera room, switching between groups A and B.

The Gladers, Group A, had established eight runners who had been running through the maze for twenty-six days. The Icers, Group B, had sent three girls into the maze so far to explore, but they had all made it back before the walls closed, and had found out more about their Maze than the Gladers had.

Sophie sat in the camera room with Aris, watching the Gladers as Aris had his cameras on the Icers. Thomas had gone to visit Dr Paige about something he had insisted was mandatory.

Sophie looked to the clock that hung on the wall above the door. It read 9:38 pm. The walls were set to close at 10:00, just twenty-two minutes away. One of the Glader's runners were still in the Maze. Sophie didn't know what his name was - she hadn't bothered to learn all of them - but she knew if he didn't make it back in twenty-two minutes, like the rest of the runners had, he would be locked out for the night, and the Gladers were convinced that meant certain death by the creatures called Grievers they had discovered.

Sophie had tried to learn as much about Grievers as she could ever since Minho found them in the Maze, but all she could extract from Dr Paige was that they were large, man-made arachnids, about the size of a large cow, and ran around the maze. They had stingers on them which were filled with a modified type of the Flare, which could only be treated with a serum that WICKED sent to the Glade in small amounts. She had mentioned a process called the Changing came with the injection of the serum, but refused to include any more information in her summary.

The Grievers had been caught a few times on the Beetle Blades, but ran much faster than the cameras so glimpses that Sophie got of them were short. She had seen that it would be quite painful to be stung by one, though, and hoped that the runner got back before night.

There was a large crowd of Gladers surrounding the West Door to the Maze, where they were waiting for their friend to return. Sophie saw that some of the Gladers were exchanging anxious whispers with others standing nearby them.

"Are you seeing this?" Sophie asked Aris.

"The Glade? No, what's happening?" Aris turned his chair towards Sophie and watched her screen. "Why are they all gathered around the door? Griever?"

"No, one of the runners hasn't come back yet," Sophie answered.

"How much longer does he have?"

Sophie glanced at the clock "Seventeen minutes." Had five minutes really already passed since she'd last checked.

"Well, WICKED won't kill him, will they?" Aris asked.

"I don't know. I wouldn't put it past them."

"I wouldn't exactly say they would, either."

"Should we ask Paige?" Sophie asked.

"Call her," Aris said after a moment of consideration. Sophie picked up the phone and called Dr Paige's office.

"Sophie? What's wrong?" she asked.

"Are you watching the Glade?" Sophie responded.

"No, what's wrong?"

"There's a kid in the Maze! Aris and I don't think he's going to make it back in time."

"Do you have his location?" Dr Paige asked.

"No," Sophie answered. She pulled the phone away from her mouth and talked to Aris. "Get a Beetle Blade to find where he is. See if he's close."

"Just wait it out, Sophie," Dr Paige said. "I don't have much control over the Mazes at the moment, and even if he gets left out there, don't call anybody else, okay? WICKED knows what they're doing."

"How can they-" but Dr Paige hung up the phone before she could finish.

"She's clearly not telling us something," Sophie retorted, crossing her arms and sinking into her chair.

"What'd she say?" Aris asked.

"Wait it out. Don't call anybody else. WICKED knows what they're doing. Find his location. That's it," Sophie answered.

"What a vague woman."

-_-

Sophie hadn't realized it was 10:01 when she glanced back at the screen. She had been staring at the floor.

"Did the kid get back?" she asked, noticing that the crowd had disbanded and the walls were sealed tightly shut.

"Look for yourself," Aris answered.

"No?"

"No."

Sophie wondered what would happen to the kid. The Gladers were convinced it meant absolute death, that there was no way he was coming back. Would WICKED really let one of their subjects die?

"What was his name?" Sophie asked.

"George, I think," Aris answered.

"George," Sophie repeated.

She tried to push him from her mind - at least for now. If he turned up, he turned up. If not, well, it was best to forget about him.

She moved the Beetle Blade to the hammock that Newt was sitting on. He had his hands folded in his lap, looking down at them sadly.

When he spoke, it was so softly and short that Sophie almost didn't catch the words. Almost.

"Why are you doing this?"

She thought for a second he was speaking to himself, but when he looked straight into the camera of the Beetle Blade, it was clear he was addressing Sophie - WICKED.

She almost replied, almost spoke to the screen, even though he couldn't possibly hear her. She kept quiet, so Aris wouldn't hear.

"Why are you doing this?" Newt asked louder, hurt filling his voice. "Why?" he screamed the last word, his voice slightly cracking. Sophie thought about moving the Beetle Blade, away from Newt so she didn't have to look at him hurt. Something about George's apparent death had triggered something in him. He stood up and stepped on the Beetle Blade. Actually slammed his foot onto it. Sophie couldn't tell whether he had the intent of breaking it, but if he did it wasn't successful.

He retreated back onto the hammock, lying down and closing his eyes. The Beetle Blade was on the ground, so she couldn't see his face anymore. Sophie decided that she should probably move the Blade, if Newt decided to break it she didn't want to be the reason it was around.

She backed the Beetle Blade up slowly, keeping it's camera focused on Newt. He turned his head to watch it walk away and groaned at the sight of it.


	4. Chapter 4

138 tally marks had been carved into stone. Sophie hadn't watched the Gladers or the Icers in a while, but she knew that others had died and others had been inserted into the Mazes. The Gladers had started calling the monthly arrivals Newbies, Greenies, and Greenbeans. Sophie didn't bother wondering why those were the names they chose.

Thomas, Aris, Teresa, Sophie, and a boy named Chuck were eating lunch at a table together as they did most other days.

"I wonder what the Gladers are up to," Thomas said, biting into a sandwich. The Gladers seemed to be the subject of most conversations around WICKED, and certainly occupied at least seven-eights of the ones Sophie was involved in.

"Not much," Aris answered.

"Have you watched them recently?" Teresa asked.

"Yeah, I was in there today. Four people have died, including George, and three people have gone up. A total loss of one," Aris answered.

"What a way to look at it," Sophie said, licking pudding off of her spoon.

"I like to think so," Aris replied.

"I can't believe they're sending me up into that place," Chuck noted.

"Don't worry, Chuck," Thomas assured him.

"Nothing will happen to you. Besides, they may have a full blueprint of the killzone before they have to send you up," Teresa added.

"Would you please stop calling it the killzone?" Thomas asked.

"Why?"

"It's too… sciencey," Aris replied. "Makes you sound like you work _for_ WICKED instead of _with_ them."

"Well, we do work _for _them, don't we?" Teresa asked. "Whether we like it or not."

"Let's talk about something else," Thomas said, nodding towards Chuck.

Chuck looked down at his plate. Everybody silenced themselves for a second. Sophie knew Thomas was right, they shouldn't talk about the Mazes or even WICKED in front of Chuck, but there wasn't much else to talk about.

"What should we talk about, then?" Aris asked on everybody's behalf.

"The weather," Teresa replied.

"Teresa, we've been inside for, like, eleven years straight. How on _earth _would you know what the weather is like?" Aris asked.

"Aris, have you heard of a thing called _windows_?" Sophie asked. "You know, with, like, _glass _and stuff. That you can see through?"

"Very funny, ha ha," Aris replied, rolling his eyes.

The conversation carried on until everyone had finished their lunch. Once Chuck had taken the last bite of his sandwich, Teresa suggested they go try to figure out what Dr Paige had been busied by two weeks ago, stopping her from helping with George's death.

"You're talking, like, sneak around? Or just straight up ask her?" Thomas asked.

"Well, we could just straight up as her. But if she doesn't answer us, we've got to snoop around a bit. I've already done some mild hacking, I've got a list of passwords to a bunch of email accounts, websites, computers, and doors that have them, and a list of when security guards are on duty."

"What do you _do _on your free time?" Chuck asked.

"You got all that from _some mild hacking_? Sounds more like a _mild _crime to me," Thomas pointed out.

"Relax, it's not even half of what we'd need to pull off a _real _crime around here," Teresa retorted.

"Okay, let's go have some fun before Paige comes and eats lunch," Aris said, who seemed supportive of the idea to investigate.

"Are you guys sure we should do this?" Chuck asked.

"Of course, Chuck," Aris answered, as if it'd been his idea all along.

"If we get caught, we'll cover for you. Promise," Teresa said, smiling.

Chuck nodded and stood up. The group walked towards the door.

"What do you think she's been up to?" Thomas asked. "We can make a bet."

"Nobody is betting on anything," Sophie answered. "We just find out and get the hell out of wherever we're going to be, because I'm ninety percent sure we aren't allowed to be there."

"More like ninety-nine," Aris mumbled.

Thomas whined sarcastically. "But _mom_! I want to have _fun_."

Teresa snickered at his childish voice. "What would you bet, anyways?"

Thomas didn't reply, but tapped his chin as if accumulating an answer. They walked in silence towards Dr Paige's office. When they reached it, they huddled around the door.

"Well, who's going to knock?" Teresa asked.

"This was your idea, you knock," Aris replied.

"Fine," Teresa smirked, raising her fist to the door. But before she could knock, it opened and they were faced with a surprised-looking Dr Paige.

"Shouldn't you guys be at lunch?" she asked.

"We already ate," Teresa answered, lowering her fist. "And we wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"We were wondering," Thomas said, stepping beside Teresa, "What you were so busy doing two weeks ago that you couldn't be bothered by one of your _subjects_, or whatever you call us, dying inside that Maze you built."

Sophie thought that came across as a bit harsh, but it got the point across pretty well.

"Two weeks ago?" Dr Paige asked. "You're still worried about that?"

Thomas hesitated before nodding.

"Well, there's nothing to be worried about," Dr Paige answered. "What was there then is taken care of now, there is no reason to bother you with the past. How about, instead, you guys go check up on the present state of the Mazes so I can go eat lunch?"

Dr Paige pushed through the kids and headed down the hallway they came from.

"Would it really hurt to tell us if it's already over?" Aris called after her, but she was gone.

"Alright, let's go," Teresa said, stepping inside of the office that Dr Paige had just exited.

"Are you serious?" Chuck asked. "She obviously doesn't want us to know!"

"Well, we obviously want to know!" Teresa countered. "Come on, guys."

Thomas followed her into the office, then Aris. Sophie looked at Chuck and shrugged as if asking _what's there to lose._ She followed Aris into the office. Once Chuck had entered the room, Sophie closed the door, and darkness swallowed the group.

"Somebody find a light switch or a lamp," Sophie heard Teresa say.

"Right here," Thomas said a moment later. There was a click and the room was lit up in a dim, blue light.

Sophie scanned the room. There was a desk with three computers on it, one of which displayed all of the cameras for Group A's Maze.

"Look at this," Sophie said, walking to the desk. "Whatever happened in the Maze that day, she knew about it."

"So she already knew that George was in the Maze," Aris said, echoing Sophie. Teresa was hunched over the middle computer on Dr Paige's desk, looking through what looked like many random numbers to Sophie.

Sophie looked at the camera views on the screen. They were the exact same as in the Camera Room. She saw Alby, Frypan, Gally, Winston, and Newt. _Newt_. Her heart dropped when she saw him, talking to Minho by one of the walls. It seemed as if she had forgotten about him for the past few days, but was now painfully reminded that he was still trapped, without any memories of his life, without any memories of _her_.

The pain that she felt was swept away when a raspy voice came from the door to the room.

Sophie whipped around and saw the WICKED employee she hated most, Assistant Director Janson.

"What are you guys doing in here?" he asked calmly.


End file.
